Aircraft
A compilation of aircraft found in-game, their stats, and tips to get the most out of them. For new CV players looking for more tips, check out [http://nf2.wikia.com/wiki/Ship_Classes#Aircraft_Carrier_.28CV.29 the ship classes guide entry for Aircraft Carriers]. NOTE: ' The level requirement for aircraft refers to your captain's level, not your pilots'. The Basics Purchasing and Loading Aircraft You can purchase all types of aircraft from the store. Once you've bought some aircraft ('Note: all aircraft expire after 7 days and must be re-bought, much like equipment), it's time to load them onto your ship! Access the ship info tab by right-clicking your ship's icon in harbor. If that ship is capable of carrying aircraft, you'll notice an "aircraft" tab below te weaponry tab. Select this. Once there, you'll see all the different types of aircraft that ship is capable of loading. Click on the appropriate box and select the type of aircraft you'd like to load. Again, this process is quite similar to loading equipment. Finally, use the sliders to adjust how many of that type of aircraft you'd like to load, much like you would adjust your ammo 'loadout. ('Note: The sliders will reset every time a new type of aircraft is loaded, so if you are loading multiple different types of aircraft, it's best to load them all onto your ship first and then adjust the sliders) Launching and Controlling Aircraft Controlling aircraft is relatively simple, and the process is the same whether you're a CL launching a scout, or a CV launching a wave of bombers. Everything starts with the aircraft panel, which displays all you need to know about your aircraft: # The squads you have available, determined by the number of pilots in your crew. Select a squad with F1 - F7. # The name of the pilot currently selected and his/her squad number. This is important for CV drivers, who will have multiple different pilots with different skill sets. # The currently selected aircraft. Clicking the left or right arrows adjacent to this image (or holding Shift and pressing the left and right arrows on your keyboard) allows you to cycle through all the types of aircraft (Recon, Fighters, Bombers, etc.) currently loaded onto your ship. # Pressing the plus or minus buttons allows you to select how many planes you'd like to ready for takeoff under the currently selected squad. The number marked "Organization" will update to display how many planes you have selected. The amount of planes you can launch at once and the number of squads you can have airborne simultaneously is determined by your ship's launch capacity. # The total number of the selected type of aircraft currently loaded onto your ship. This number updates as you lose planes throughout the game -- keep a close eye on it! # Press this button to ready aircraft for takeoff, and launch them once they are prepared. # Press this button to cancel preparation of an aircraft if you make a mistake. To launch an aircraft, select the desired pilot/squad with F1 - F7, click the plus (+) sign until you have the desired number of planes on that squad, and hit the "ready" button. When your plane(s) are done readying, click the same button to launch them. You can also press Shift + up or down to add aircraft to a squad, and press apostrophe ( ' ) to ready and launch them. Once you've launched a squad, simply issue move commands by right-clicking whenever you have that squad selected. If you have multiple squadrons in the air simultaneously, you can command them as a group by holding shift, left-clicking, and dragging a box around the squads you want to control to select them all at once. Reselect your ship by selecting one of its weapon sets. Once you've launched an aircraft, the aircraft panel for the corresponding squad will change: From here, you can click and hold the up or down arrows to adjust your aircraft's altitude, or hold L to ascend and period ( . ) to descend. Be careful when changing an aircraft's atitude! Low-flying aircraft are sitting ducks for enemy AAW, and can also crash into mountains in their path. Click on he curved arrow to order your squad to return to the ship for repairs and re-fueling. Identifying Aircraft Underneath the health bar of every aircraft squadron, you'll find a small icon which indicates what type of aircraft are in the squad. For example, the scout icon is a pair of binoculars against a green backdrop: You'll also see this icon in the aircraft launch panel, which will help you quickly select the appropriate type of aircraft. The different types of aircraft and the icons representing them can be found below. Recon Aircraft Recon aircraft provide extra vision for your team, and are found on most (but not all) BBs Tier VI and above, CAs Tier VII and above, and some CLs. They can also be mounted on CVs, but it is recommended that CV drivers save their aircraft space for other types of aircraft. Learning to use recon aircraft effectively is absolutely vital, and can often determine the outcome of an engagement, or even an entire match. Scouting Effectively Vision is the most important resource for your team, and recon aircraft are your main source of vision. Control your scouts carelessly, and you may well throw away a victory. Controlling any type of aircraft, even the lowly, single scout, requires good multitasking skills, and therefore might be challenging to new players. However, effective scouting is one of the most important skills to cultivate if you want to improve your game. Keep these tips in mind when using your scouts: * Have a scout launched or readied at all times: Never deny yourself the maximum possible amount of vision you can have. You should almost always have a scout up. If you're not actively scouting, have a scout already prepared for launch so you can recover vision for your team the second it's lost. Prepping your scout ahead of time will also save you the trouble of prepping one in the middle of a fight, reducing the amount of stress and multitasking. * Know where your scout is at all times: Your scout should never be directly over your head, or covering an area that's already lit up by friendly scouts or other sources of vision. Always be scouting either the targets you're currently engaged with, the region in which you expect the enemy to be, or the direction you're advancing. Knowing where your scout is will also give you a better estimate of how much time it will take to light up a new target, should you suddenly have to change its position. If you lose track of your scout, double-tap its corresponding squad number (F1 - F7) and the camera will snap to its position. * Treat your scouts with care: Again, your scouts are an incredibly precious and limited resource. If you waste them, you'll be completely vulnerable to any ship -- regardless of tier or class -- who has better vision than you. If you see enemy fighters circling over your team or over the area you'd like to scout, hold off from launching your scout. Wait until friendly fighters can distract or clear away the enemy fighters, or until they run out of fuel, or until you can find a different angle of approach. If the enemy are proving to be quite skillful with their flak, then you may have to micromanage your scout -- a scout moving erratically and unpredictably is far harder to hit. Lowering your scouts altitude, and/or keeping the enemy just on the edge of its view range (and therefore hopefully out of range of enemy flak) are also useful methods of keeping your scouts and your vision alive. If your scout becomes heavily damaged or you fear it may be shot down soon, recall it early. Better to temporarily lose vision of a target prematurely than to lose a scout and potentially be denied vision for the rest of the game. * Know when to hold 'em: '''As the above tips have suggested, there are times when it's better to hold off from launching your scout. However, dangerous conditions needn't always be the reason for doing so. Excessive redundancy in vision is another reason: if you have two or more teammates scouting the same target that all of you are engaging, then hold off on launching your scout until the others are returning or otherwise incapacitated. This makes your team more efficient with its overall usage of scouting resources, and also reduces the amount of time your team will be blind (if you followed the first tip and had a scout ready to launch). Alternatively, find a different region to scout. You might have excellent vision ahead of you, but what if something is sneaking up in that large clump of darkness to the south? Even if you uncover nothing, it's good to have your flanks scouted to know how much breathing room you have and to serve as an early warning for potential enemy advances. When you're down to only one scout left, that's another time to be extremely choosy about when you launch. Launch only when no one else can scout, or when your life depends on it. * '''Respect enemy scouts, and terminate them with extreme prejudice: If you've ever been blind and completely at the mercy of an enemy ship, you know exactly how important it is to maintain vision. The other side of that coin is that it's equally important to deny the enemy vision of your team, and to react appropriately when you're scouted. If you're sailing along and see any type of enemy plane, especially a scout, fly in your direction, you should immediately drop back. If you're not already in range of their guns, you'd better believe that you soon will be. Treat an enemy plane as if it were an enemy ship -- you don't want to be anywhere near it. As you're falling back, try to take out the aircraft with flak. If you have trouble, try using your own scout to lure the enemy plane down into your AAW. Keep the enemy lit up and blind and you'll be able to completely control the engagement, even when at a massive tier or class disadvantage. If nothing else, learning to be efficient with your scouts and keep them alive longer is probably the single most important thing to learn about scouting. When battles turn into stalemates, the deciding factor is often which team runs out of scouts or other sources of vision first. Vision -- and by extension, your scouts -- is that important of a resource. Fighter Aircraft The tip of the spear when it comes to air superiority, fighter aircraft are the most important resource for any CV. Note that the USN and KM feature enhanced air-to-air damage on their fighters, thanks to their national bonuses. Securing Air Superiority Controlling a squadron of fighters can be much more difficult than it seems. Not only are you often required to divide your attention to numerous different points on the map, but as a low-level CV, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose any straight-up, 1-on-1 dogfights. However, you shouldn't let that discourage you, as you can still accomplish a lot of good with your fighters. To improve your contribution to your team, keep these tips in mind: * Know when to avoid a dogfight: Aside from pilots' ability and morale, the two biggest factors in determining the outcome of a dogfight are the tier and number of aircraft entering the fray. If you see a large group of enemy fighters that outnumber your own squadrons, or a group of higher-tiered fighters, avoid them as best you can. Fighters are as important to preserve as scouts, and wasting them by throwing them wave after wave at a superior force will accomplish nothing. * Don't focus too heavily on enemy fighters: '''Your job in using fighters isn't necessarily to clear the air of enemy fighters. Instead, focus on eliminating enemy scouts, bombers, and transport planes. Enemy fighters might be dangerous in that they can keep your team blind and provide some vision, but they can't scout as well as recon aircraft, and they can't damage your teammates or capture bases. Enemy scouts, in particular, should garner much of your attention. It's much easier for you to down enemy scouts with your fighters than it is for your team with their flak, so keeping the enemy blind should be your number one priority. A smart CV driver might also use their fighters as a distraction, keeping you occupied while they sneak their bombers around the map to deliver a surprise to you. * '''Even the odds: '''If you do wind up in a dogfight you know you can't win, try to fall back, drop altitude, and draw your opponent into friendly AAW. You'll either force the enemy to retreat, buying you more time to recover your planes, or you may even outright win the engagement. * '''Know how to move your aircraft: '''Unlike other aircraft, when controlling fighters, you should be issuing attack-move orders rather than regular move orders about 90% of the time. Do this by holding shift while right-clicking. When fighters have been ordered to attack-move to a location, they will stop to engage any enemy planes in their path and pursue them until they are dead before returning to their original course. The only time you want to avoid issuing an attack-move order is when you do NOT want your fighters to aggro onto something -- for example, when retreating from a superior enemy squadron, or when trying to avoid following an enemy aircraft into enemy AAW. * '''Micromanage: Whenever possible, take direct control of your planes, keep them agile, and keep them on the move. This makes it harder for the enemy team to hit them with flak, and makes it more likely that you'll be ready to retreat should you need to. NEVER rely on the auto-follow/auto-escort feature by right clicking on a friendly or enemy ship. If you use the auto-escort feature, your planes will stay directly above a friendly ship, and won't venture out to attack enemies. If a bomber squadron comes in, your fighters will react far too late to make a difference. Moreover, they won't be attacking any enemy scouts unless they get too close. In this position, your planes may as well be useless. If you use the same feature on an enemy ship, your planes will dive in and out of its AAW and ultimately succumb to it. Dive Bombers Dive bombers pack a powerful punch equivalent to high-tier BB shells, and when used properly, can be difficult for the enemy to avoid. Death from Above There are a few things to keep in mind when attempting to get the most out of your DBs. First, each dive bomber in the game actually has two variants available in the store: one carrying an AP bomb, and one carrying an HE bomb. As with the ammo 'on your ship, HE is what you'll be using 90% of the time, so it doesn't really make sense to ever purchase the AP variant of a bomber. Once you've bought some bombers, using them is simple. Just right-click on an enemy ship or base to issue a bombing order, and your squad will automatically track the target and begin a dive. Press the spacebar when you want them to release their bombs. You can also issue a manual dive-bombing order by pressing semicolon ( ; ). Your bombers will begin a dive wherever your cursor is positioned on screen, and pressing the spacebar will again order them to drop their bombs. For a more in-depth look at the mechanics of manual dive bombing, check out Shin's video tutorial: Dive bombing is relatively simple, but there are still those who excel at it and those who do not. Keep these tips in mind when using your DBs: * '''Judge Where to Spend Your Points: '''The '"bomber" skill 'only affects the accuracy of automatic bombing. If you're confident in your skills and do not plan on using automatic bombing to great extent, don't invest too heavily in the bomber skill. Whatever you decide, do not neglect the "evasion" skill, which will improve your planes' resistance to enemy 'AAW and fighter aircraft. * Know Who to Target: DBs are best used for dealing sudden spikes of damage to large targets like BBs, CVs, and CAs. Whenever possible, prioritize these targets. Careful who you pick on, though -- especially at lower levels, your bombers will be easily decimated by the AAW and flak of higher-tier ships. * The Healthier, the Better: DBs are excellent for softening up or securing kills on targets like BBs when they have lots of health remaining. Don't waste your bombs on an enemy with almost no health left unless it's going to save either your life or the life of a teammate. A squadron of DBs has a ton of damage potential, and it takes a lot longer for you to recall them, launch another squad, and fly out to a new target than it does for your teammates to load another salvo or two to finish a kill. * Approach from Behind: 'Try to catch your opponent unaware. Approaching from behind, when using auto bombing, gives your bombers the greatest chance of success in scoring a hit. Approaching from a perpendicular angle makes it easier for the enemy to dodge. * '''Stay in the Dive as Long as You Can: '''Again, this is difficult to do at lower levels when your resistance to 'AAW is poor, but the longer you stay in a dive, the greater your chances of hitting the target. Don't stay too long, though -- if your planes reach the deck of an enemy ship before you drop your bombs, they'll pull up automatically. Avoid this at all costs, as it means you will have caused tons of unnecessary damge to your planes for no benefit. * Pay Attention; Get Sneaky if Need Be: 'Don't just send your bombers off in a direction and then forget about them. Periodically check the path ahead of them to make sure it's clear of enemy fighters and flak. If you're facing an opponent that has air superiority over you, find corridors of airspace free of enemy planes and ships. Try to sneak your bombers around and take out the enemy CV. Torpedo Bombers The other main type of bomber in the game, torpedo bombers are a powerful tool for dropping a surprise spread of torps on an enemy and hitting them below the waterline. Do note that the IJN and the RN feature enhanced torpedo bomber damage, thanks to their 'national bonuses. Hitting Them where It Hurts As with dive bombers, you'll find that there are two varieties of each torpedo bomber available in the store: a speed variant and a damage variant. Unlike with dive bombers, however, the best choice between the two is more a matter of personal preference, since they deal the same type of damage (unlike dive bombers, which deal ''either ''HE damage ''or ''AP damage). One type deals slightly more damage at the cost of plane speed, while the other sacrifices damage to make the planes faster. If you're having trouble keeping your planes alive, the speed variants might be a good choice, as you can get them out of trouble faster. Also like dive bombers, torpedo bombers can be commanded either automatically or manually. Manually aiming your torpedo bombers is the easiest and most effective method of hitting your target consistently. Simply lower them to minimum altitude using the arrows in the aircraft control panel, or by pressing the period key ( . ), and move them around as normal. When you are ready to drop your torpedoes, press the spacebar. Be sure you turn your planes around immediately after dropping, as they will not automatically pull away and will get shot down by enemy AAW if you do not control them properly. Ideally, you'll want to approach your target from a perpendicular angle, as this will yield the most damage and make it difficult for your target to dodge. Don't forget to lead your shots, too! Keep in mind the survival tips provided in the dive bomber section to help keep your planes alive, and you'll be sending them to the bottom in no time! Medium Bombers A new addition to the CV's arsenal not found in the first Navy Field, medium bombers offer yet another method of attacking your foes. They are available to CVs tier VIII and above. Rolling Thunder Unlike the previous two types of bombers, medium bombers are level bombers, meaning that they bomb from their max altitude and deploy their ordinance in a carpet-bombing fashion, much like a miniature version of the flagship's bomber support ability. Though their bombs pack less of a punch and offer less armor penetration than those of dive bombers, medium bombers carry a whopping 4 bombs each, meaning that their damage potential is theoretically higher...if you hit your target with at least 3 of the 4. Sadly, this is easier said than done. Manually aiming medium bombers is a must. Successfully hitting a maneuvering enemy target can involve a lot of micromanagement and even more lead, unless they're totally unaware of your presence. Even if your aim is spot-on, it's unlikely that more than one plane's worth of bombs will hit unless you are extremely good at micromanagement and able to stack your aircraft (meaning you make the entire squad condense their formation to a size just larger than one plane). The journey to the target and back is quite the arduous one. Medium bombers are larger, slower, and in many ways more vulnerable than their single-engine counterparts. They may boast better durability and defensive armament than the other types of bombers, and may even take out a tailing enemy fighter or two, but make no mistake: if enemy flak or fighters latch on to medium bombers, they are absolutely screwed. As you might expect, the larger planes also take up a lot more aircraft space, meaning you can load far fewer of them onto your carrier, and that every loss hurts that much more. For these reasons, it is currently recommended that you do not use medium bombers. Transport Planes Available to carriers tier VIII and higher, transport planes allow you to drop paratroopers on bases around the map, turning your CV into a powerful capping force. Helldivers Like medium bombers, transport planes are big, slow, vulnerable, and take up a lot more space on your carrier than other aircraft. Unlike medium bombers, however, transport planes are incredibly useful. The paratroopers dropped from these planes deal enormous damage to bases, allowing you to put pressure on or even fully capture almost any base on the map at any given time -- even if the base in question is behind enemy lines, or otherwise too hot for your teammates to capture themselves. It is therefore highly recommended that you take on at least a few of these planes from the moment they are available to you. They're not without their disadvantages, however. They are arguably the most vulnerable aircraft in the game -- flying into range of enemy flak or fighters will guarantee their death. Use them carefully, babysit their flight path, and be sneaky if you have to. Try to avoid using them unless you have air superiority or have identified serious gaps in the enemy's air defense.Category:US Navy Category:British Royal Navy Category:Imperial Japanese Navy Category:Kriegsmarine Category:Aircraft Category:Aircraft Carrier Category:Fighters Category:Bombers Category:Scouts